Charity status declined – Free-food outlet is under threat

Just Zilch could close in three months unless its application to become a charity is accepted or the community provides emergency funding.

The free-food store, which opened in June 2011, has been fighting to become a charitable trust for the past 18 months, but has been refused at least six times.

It is about to put in its seventh application to Charities Services and if it is refused again Just Zilch Trust chairman Mark Ward says the community organisation will be on “desperate street”.

The reason Just Zilch keeps getting turned down is it has been unable to provide proof it is alleviating poverty.

Charities Services – formerly the Charities Commission – was unable to immediately respond to Manawatu Standard queries yesterday, but on its website it says that an organisation such as Just Zilch needs to be “providing the poor with a food bank” to qualify as a charity.

Because the store gives food to everybody – regardless of need – Just Zilch Trust has struggled to explain that the store is not feeding the rich as well, Mr Ward says.

Just Zilch is a food bank-like set-up, where food is collected from a variety of local shops, cafes and restaurants, and distributed for free to anyone who needs it, out of a premises on Fitzherbert St, Palmerston North. The initiative has applied to be registered for a charity on several occasions over the past 22 months, but to date all applications have been refused.